Driver In Girl's Slaying Will Serve 10 Years In Prison

SUFFOLK — Danielle Monique Davis was young, impressionable - and caught up with the wrong kind of guy, her attorney said.

But the 24-year-old Windsor woman still must be held responsible for being the driver in a drive-by shooting that killed a 14-year-old girl, Suffolk Circuit Court Judge Carl Eason Jr. said Thursday. He sentenced her to 37 years in prison, with all but 10 years suspended.

"A life has been lost because of the actions that took place that night that you were involved in," Eason said.

Davis is accused of driving the car that Willie Lamark Waters Jr. shot from July 2, 2005, killing Diane Holland and injuring another teen. She entered an Alford plea in December 2006 to second-degree murder and malicious wounding. An Alford plea means she acknowledged there was enough evidence to convict her but did not admit to the killing.

Her plea agreement called for her to testify against Waters. She upheld her part of the bargain this year, when Waters was convicted of first-degree murder. "Without her testimony, it's unlikely the commonwealth would have gotten its conviction," her attorney, David H. Moyer of Norfolk, said. "It's an unfortunate and tragic situation, and she is going to pay a dear price for it."

Before she was sentenced, she asked for leniency. "I just want to apologize to the family" of Holland, she said, her voice wavering. "I'm not a bad person. I made bad choices."

It's true she had no prior criminal record, Eason said. But the bad choice she made came with consequences she must be held accountable for. Holland, who had just finished the eighth grade at King's Fork Middle School, was simply hanging out with friends, drinking a soda the night she died. "An innocent young girl was killed," Eason said. "A truly innocent bystander."

Davis faces 20 years of probation when she gets out of jail.

Waters opened fire on a social gathering in downtown Suffolk to settle a score, prosecutors said during his trial. He was sentenced to 87 years in prison for that and for an unrelated charge of solicitation to commit a felony.

Holland's death and other incidents of youth violence shocked the city and spurred an initiative to address the problem.

Waters was originally charged in Holland's shooting, but charges were dropped when witnesses were reluctant to testify.

Then, when Waters was found guilty of federal drug and gun charges in 2007 and was taken off the streets, those witnesses came forward, and the case was reopened, the commonwealth's attorney's office said. The U.S. Attorney's Office on May 1 recognized Commonwealth's Attorney C. Phillips Ferguson and Deputy Commonwealth's Attorney Will H. Jamerson for supporting the federal prosecution of Waters, a gang leader known as "Bang Bang" or "Bang 'Em Up." The two commonwealth's attorney's office investigators, Everett C. Harris and John Cooke, received public service awards for their involvement in the federal case.

"Gang violence is a plague on our nation, but residents of Suffolk can rest much easier with the knowledge that a major gang leader and murderer will no longer prey on innocent victims," Ferguson said in a news release, "and Diane Holland's family can sleep at night knowing that justice has been served."